


They

by UpsetTransMan



Category: Voltron - Fandom, Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Agender Character, Bonding, Gen, Gender Identity, agender pidge, gender discovery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-24
Updated: 2016-07-24
Packaged: 2018-07-26 09:21:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7568722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UpsetTransMan/pseuds/UpsetTransMan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shiro and Pidge have a bonding experience late at night, thinking about things. Shiro shares some information about gender identities.</p>
            </blockquote>





	They

**Author's Note:**

> In this work, I refer to Pidge as they/them as per my own headcanon that those are their preferred pronouns. If you notice that at any time I refer to them as anything other than they/them, please tell me and I'll fix it right away!

Late one night, Pidge was out in the lounging room, learning about Altean culture out of respect for Allura and Coran. The stars above them were beautiful, they were tired but they decided to keep doing what they were doing. There was no point in going to sleep at this hour now.

"Man," Pidge breathed. There were so many things that were different from Earth. They missed it.

There was a noise sounding like a slorsh. Hunk was probably getting a midnight snack. Pidge decided they should check on him. They closed what they were working on and set out to find the source of the slorsh.

Entering the doorway of the kitchen, Pidge saw Shiro looking like he had had a fight with his pillow, by the wrinkles of his clothing and his unwashed, matted hair, Pidge knew what was going on. Shiro needed space right now so they respected it. Besides, Shrio probably knew that Pidge was awake and where they would be if he needed them. There were many paths that would take them back to the lounge room, but Pidge prefered the more scenic route. They made their journey down the halls slowly to take in the sights of what they probably will only see once.

Out the windows, Pidge could see thousands of stars and galaxies that made them want to cry. Their eyes danced from constellation to constellation in order to find at least one that would be familiar but, to no avail, there were none. They sat down. Pidge reached behind them to pull a pillow, a notebook, and a pencil out of their pack. They bring it everywhere, just in case. Wiggling around to find a comfortable position, they find a few stars that could make a story come true. They leaned on the cut-out where the window meets the wall, just wide enough for them to lean against. Sitting criss cross applesauce, Pidge put their pillow on their lap and drew the stars. This one looked like a man who risked his life to save a boy. Another few stars passed by. These looked like a blue boy who's red for a red boy. They laughed. A few more and a noble princess and her adviser danced across the void. They had waited for ten thousand years for a few toddlers to save the world. Pidge misses their family much like the princess misses her father. A large and kind man stumbles next to a...

"What am I," whispers Pidge. They weren't truly a boy, they were pretending for so long but, could that have altered the way they think about their true gender being a girl? "If I'm not a boy really, then I should be a girl but that just doesn't feel right, it makes me want to be sick, I don't to be sick! I don't want to be Katie! I like being Pidge but I can't because I'm supposed to be a girl! I don't want to be a boy or a girl I don't like this, what's wrong with me, I'm so stupid uuAARGh!!" With each word, Pidge got more and more upset and loud, although they didn't realize it. Their face had become red and their voice was confused and enraged. They were standing, when had they stood up? There was a shadow behind him,  _oh god._ A gentle hand on their shoulder and they were calm.

"Hey, Pidge," Shiro spoke with a soft honeyed voice, "you okay?"

"Oh! Haha, hi! Um, what...what's up S-shiro?" They stammered. _Did he hear all that?_ "Did you hear all that?"

Shiro breathed in amusement, kind of like a soft laugh that you don't want anyone to hear. Pidge heard though, and they looked worried. Shiro sighed like an old, kind teacher would sigh when they really like one of their students and wanted to teach them something. "Did you know there are more than just two genders?"

"Um, no. No, I didn't but, there have been cultures who had a third gender and, I should have realized I was like that. I don't know, I guess I thought that, since I'm a girl, I shouldn't change. I know there are more than specifically male and female parts only so I guess I could be a mix of the two and I guess I should have known that, I don't know what I was thinking I just-"

"Pidge," Shiro interrupted in a warm tone, "there are more genders than there are sexes. First, there's the spectrum, where you can be anything from a boy or a girl or something in between. You could be a demiboy, a demigirl, genderfluid, there's even bigender and genderflux too! There are genders outside the spectrum too like how black and white aren't colors. You can be stargender or third gender, which I think is pretty cool, and you can even be pangender."

"I don't think any of those could really fit me, I'm just a girl who pretended to be a boy for a kind of long time and got confused is all." Pidge had dismissed the idea of them being an other gender when Shiro started mentioning that there were more than two. None of them sounded like how they felt. They didn't feel like being any gender.

"You didn't let me get to the gender I saved for you!" He was so warm and comforting when Pidge was upset.

"What is it?

"Agender. It means you don't feel like you're any gender or that you'd rather not be categorized as male, female, or anything in between."

Pidge let out a quiet breath that would sound like and 'oh' to anyone but them. They were relieved. This was something that sounded right. This is what Pidge felt like when it came to if they were a boy or a girl. They weren't either. It was so comforting.

"Pidge, I know you are a very special person. If you're a boy, a girl, something in between, or something far away, you matter to me and the guys just as much as anyone else." Pidge's eyes were getting heavy at this point. They felt safe here with Shiro. They scooted forward and leaned against the wall behind them. Very clumsily, they managed to stand up with their notebook and pillow in their hands. Pidge was proud of that. They motioned to Shiro to follow them into the lounge area to relax. To keep each other company.

Pidge decided to keep working on learning about Altean tradition, occasionally spouting facts to a content Shiro. Pidge eventually came across an extremely long passage about customs and rules for greeting a political figure from a hostile neighborhood and they blinked a single blink that it looked like they had fallen asleep. They had. Shiro gave an airy chuckle as Pidge fell into his lap. Shiro began to count the stars.

 _One, two, three..._ He was asleep.

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> I'm upsettransman everywhere if you need me.


End file.
